As mobile data networks continue to experience an unprecedented explosion in total network traffic, mobile devices consume large amounts of wireless network bandwidth. The increase in network traffic is largely driven by web-enabled smart phones and mobile-connected laptop computers. Within the overall network-growth trend, mobile video is expected to become the dominant consumer of mobile-data bandwidth.
With bandwidth demand exploding in mobile networks, service providers must expand their radio networks to keep up with data growth. However, adding radio transmitters to keep up with bandwidth growth is not always possible or economical. Building out the mobile networks to support these traffic volumes is expensive. All data ultimately originates or terminates at the user equipment, which requires transmission of the video data over scarce radio resources.